Kenichi Nakashima
C. Farr
9-26-12
2A
Where you all go wrong
I hear that someone I love. His name is Poetry. He is being mistreated, misunderstood,
and even being called names. Well, I am here to stop this nonsense. Poetry has so many fantastic
and profound things to him. I will tell you all these things and more. I will tell you all about
poetry within some characteristics that pour out of him that get people so confused. These
characteristics are: how many different ways he can portray himself, how literal he can be, how
much emotion he has, his sense of rhythm and rhyme, and all the levels he can be.
Poetry’s first and most important characteristic, I think, is his way of deceiving almost all
that meet him. He is the master of tragedy and comedy. Poetry has been used by so many people
in so many different ways. The poet Sarah Teasdale wrote a poem called I am not yours. The
poem says, “I am not yours, not lost in you.” (I am not yours, Sarah Teasdale) This poem is the
pretty much as negative as you can get. The narrator tells another that that they aren’t theirs. I
consider this a tragedy. Shel Silverstein on the other hand wrote a poem entitled Boa Constrictor
which has a completely different tone. The poem reads, “Oh, I’m being eaten by a boa
constrictor….Oh gee, it’s up to my knee…” (Boa Constrictor, Shel Siverstein) Silverstein has a
very comedic tone and presence. There are so many different “personas” that poetry can be,
these are just the main ones.
Poetry’s second special characteristic is that he could be as literal as you want him to be or as
figurative as you would like him to be. Dudley Randall’s Ballad of Birmingham says,
Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today
To one person this poem can be very literal and they could be true. This poem is very straight
forward, but there will always be that one person that will find a much deeper meaning.
Poetry’s so kind that he lets you choose what you to mean.
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